Colorado Living - A Little Place Called Aspen

Someplace warm. A place where the beer flows like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I'm talking about a little place called Aspen.

Aspen was one of my favorite places in Colorado. It was a beautiful three hour drive from where we were living in Golden. We were lucky enough to make it there three times. I would have had a much more pleasurable time living in Colorado had we lived in Aspen instead of Denver.

Our first trip to Aspen was for the Winter X Games just a few months after we had moved to Colorado. It was pretty incredible to attend the Winter X Games and we were front and center for the half pipe competition. 

This is what I mean by we were front and center. We were standing on the half pipe.  

Not the greatest quality picture, but you get the idea how close we were.

We also watched the snow cross and big air while at the X Games. It was a pretty sweet time, but there is so much more to Aspen so I'll cut the X Games short. 

We also spent Halloween 2010 in Aspen but somehow, we had so much fun, that I didn't document our trip. 

We didn't really have any Halloween plans and we heard that one of our favorite DJs was going to be playing at the Belly Up in Aspen. We decided to make a spontaneous trip. This was our first time at the Aspen Brewery, and this is the only picture I have.

I know they say a picture is worth 1000 words, but I don't need pictures to tell you how bomb Aspen Brewery was. I can just tell you, Aspen Brewery is bomb. We spent most of our time there and managed to almost miss the show we went for, the entire reason we made a trip to Aspen. I'll just say, had we missed the show, just Aspen Brewery would have been worth the trip.

Our final trip to Aspen was actually to snowboard and it happened to fall on Memorial Day weekend, 2011. The mountains were getting a ton of snow last spring and Aspen Mountain decided to re-open after closing for the season. We decided to make the trip for some epic almost summer snowboarding. 

Independence Pass had also opened the day before we drove to Aspen and we decided to take a different route and see some different scenery. Plus, Independence Pass is one of the craziest mountain passes in Colorado and I didn't want to miss that experience! 

Starting the climb up the pass, you can see the difference in the amount of snow on the side of the road. As we got closer to the top, the depth of snow was amazing. They had just plowed that road to open it the day before.

Top of Independence Pass

If you are wondering why we are wearing shorts, well we are just crazy like that. No, really it was in the high 60s during our drive and in Aspen, but the top of the pass was pretty chilly!

Once we got to Aspen, we had some epic snowboarding conditions. It was in the high 60s, pushing 70 at the bottom of the mountain. There wasn't even snow on the bottom half of the mountain. The only part of the mountain that was open was the top to the middle. 

Top of Aspen Mountain - Memorial Day weekend 2011

Snowboarding in Aspen was pretty awesome. When we got to the bottom of the mountain it was too hot to even have a drink. We needed to change immediately. It was like we had the best of both worlds. Snowy Apen and summer Aspen. 

We then headed to, where else? Aspen Brewery! Once again, we got pretty toasted. The rest of the time and the next day we spent walking around and enjoying the weather.

The weekend in Aspen was beautiful! I'll leave you with a photo dump.

Coming back down Independence Pass on our way out of town, there was a small avalanche that blocked the road. I told you that pass was pretty crazy!

I have so much more of Colorado to share including Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado breweries and camping adventures!